March 26, 2015

26/03/2015: Grain handling equipment upgrades at Strawson’s Farms

In 1998 Strawson’s Farms, Louth, installed a range of 30 tonnes per hour (tph) and 60 tph grain handling equipment from Perry of Oakley Ltd and a 20tph drier. More recently Mr Strawson has found this system had not been able to keep up with the amount of grain he is now producing on the farm, and so made the decision to upgrade his drier and handling equipment. Each year Mr Strawson may need to dry up to 6000 tonnes which will be a combination of wheat, barley, oilseed rape and beans. It was decided the 20tph drier would be changed to a Perry 50tph M611 drier and the handling equipment was upgraded to the 100tph Perry heavy-duty agricultural range of conveyors and elevators along with re-using one of the existing Perry conveyors. The heavy duty agricultural range (from 60tph to 120tph) is a mid range specification that bridges the gap between the lower capacity agricultural range (from 8tph to 60tph) and the high capacity industrial range of products (from 60tph up to 600tph). All Perry machinery is designed and manufactured in house and has an all bolted and riveted construction with heavy-duty dimple form countersunk joint for high mechanical strength. The heavy-duty agricultural range is suitable for a throughput up to 30,000 tonnes per annum.The new handling equipment at Strawson’s Farms incorporates a 100tph curved combination conveyor, two 100tph store filling conveyors, a 100tph flow and return conveyor & two 100tph single lift elevators. Mr Strawson was happy to use Perry handling equipment again as it had performed well on the original installation and found it straightforward to use & maintain.

The drying process starts with product being tipped into an existing pit which feeds a 300mm intake screw that was already installed at the farm. The product is then picked up by a 14.45m 100tph elevator which then routes the product to either the drier via a 9.1m flow and return conveyor, or feeds the product to an 8.5m 100tph conveyor which is connected to a 27.5m 100tph 15° curve combination conveyor. The system was designed and drawn by Perry’s Area Sales Manager which is a service available to all our customers. We help our customers design a solution for their needs using our over 60 years of grain handling and drying experience.The curve combination conveyor is made up using Perry’s market leading horizontal conveyor and flight elevator designs. Each conveyor that leaves the factory has been tailored to suit the customer’s needs, with a wide range of optional extras and heavy duty construction Perry’s will be able to fill any customer’s requirements. The curve runs along the line of the roof giving more vertical storage height. Coming off of the curved conveyor are two existing Perry conveyors that were uprated to cope with the increased required capacity, these deposit the product to the back of the store, allowing the store to be filled to its maximum potential. If the product has been routed through the Perry drier the shutter discharge deposits the product into another 8.5m 100tph conveyor and is then moved up to the curve combination conveyor via a 10.55m 100tph elevator. Perry’s agricultural and heavy duty agricultural range of elevators are fitted with low stretch, oil resistant EP nitrile rubber belting as standard and have slatted pulleys to help reduce the build-up of material on the pulleys. Along with a durable galvanised steel finish the elevators have been designed to offer a high specification machine at an affordable price.

When the drier is operated at 125°C it is capable of a throughput of 48.5tph (based on dry wheat at 750kg/m³), it stands at just over 10m tall by 6m wide. This gives the drier a holding capacity of 51 tonnes. All Perry driers designed and manufactured to BS6399 for wind loading & BS5950 for structural strength, the drier has been designed to be as efficient and long lasting as possible. Perry has a dedicated research and development drier that allows them to constantly update their technology and understanding of their driers. All Perry driers have a reliable pneumatic shutter discharge system.Mr Strawson’s new M611 drier is fitted with Perry’s new Light Grain & Chaff Recovery System (LGCRS). The LGCRS is a pneumatically operated system that is installed at the base of the exhaust plenum. It has been designed to help reduce the build up of dust, chaff & light seeds in the exhaust plenum by periodically discharging any product that may have been drawn, by the fans, from the grain column and puts it back with the main grain flow. This is an optional extra that can be fitted to new Perry driers and it can be retrofitted to existing Perry driers that have been fitted with shutter discharges.The whole system is controlled using the Perry’s PLC drier and plant control panel. The 12 inch touchscreen PLC panel has been designed and programmed by Perry engineers and is capable of controlling up to 10 machines as standard along with the drier. The panel displays a mimic of the complete store as well as having multiple automatic and manual routes available. In the drier control section alone there are over 70 alarms and messages, making drier operation easy to understand.

Another impressive feature of the drier panel is its ability to calculate and set the parameters needed for the target moisture content when the crop type and intake moisture content is specified. There is also no need to babysit the drier as the panel can send live status updates via email or text to designated addresses and numbers. It can also be controlled remotely from any computer, allowing Perry staff to offer remote support to any drier. Mr Strawson said: “Having used Perry handling equipment previously I was happy to upgrade to the Perry heavy duty agricultural range of machinery. The drier is performing well and the LGCRS saves me time, as I don’t have to empty the exhaust plenum as often. The PLC Panel is easy to use and overall we are very happy with our installation.”